A Reuters/Ipsos conducted national poll has revealed that at lets forty percent of Americans supported the ban on the Chinese owned short video sharing app TikTok by the United States President Donald Trump if its owner. Chinese company ByteDance, is unable to sell the US operations of the app to an American company.
The results show significant support of the Trump administrations’ efforts to separate the social media upstart from its Chinese owner.
The poll included responses from 1,349 adult respondents across the United States and its results were published on Monday. The survey found that the recent executive order by Trump forcing China's ByteDance to sell its TikTok operations in the United States by September 15 was supported by 40 per cent of the respondents. The move was opposed by 30 per cent of the respondents while another 30 per cent said they didn't know either way, the report found.
The survey report further found that most of the respondents were largely split along party lines and many of those who agreed with the executive order of Trump said that they do not know much about TikTok. For example, about 69 per cent of Republican supporters participating in the survey supported the move by the Trump administration but only 32 per cent of them said that they were familiar with the app. On the other hand, only 21 per cent of the Democrat supporters participating in the survey supported the Trump order and about 46 per cent of them said that they were familiar with TikTok.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that the outcome of the survey suggested that most people in the United States only had "a fleeting knowledge of the brand". The public rhetoric around TikTok and the increasing tensions with Beijing were potentially the causes of the negative attitudes against the app, Chatterjee said.
"Clearly there's been a politicization of TikTok," he said.
In the United States and elsewhere, TikTok has seemingly caught the attention and imagination of the teenage zeitgeist with catchy song-and-dance videos. But amid deteriorating relations with China, there has been bipartisan concern over the relation of TikTok’s parent company with the Chinese government.
The US president Donald Trump had issued an executive order asking ByteDance to sell of TikTok’s US operations to an American company because the Trump administration is concerned that the Chinese company and its app can be a national security threat. The American companies that are in the race to bid for the app include Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp. the Chinese app claimed that it has about 100 million monthly active users in the US.
An executive order issued by Trump on August 6 effectively banned all American companies form transacting with the Chinese company and its app within a period of 45 days. TikTok is now reportedly preparing for a possible shut down of its US operations if its sell off was not possible with mid-September even though t he company has also filed a lawsuit in the US challenging the executive order. The report also said that the company expects that any shutdown of its US operations would be temporary in nature.
The top contenders for the purchase of TikTok include the American tech giants Microsoft and Oracle as well as the retailer Walmart that confirmed that it had joined the race earlier this week.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, about 38 per cent of the respondents said that they were either very or somewhat familiar with the app while 25 per cent said they had watched a video on the platform. About 35 per cent of the respondents agreed with the statement that they had "heard of it, but that's about it."
(Source:www.livemint.com)
The results show significant support of the Trump administrations’ efforts to separate the social media upstart from its Chinese owner.
The poll included responses from 1,349 adult respondents across the United States and its results were published on Monday. The survey found that the recent executive order by Trump forcing China's ByteDance to sell its TikTok operations in the United States by September 15 was supported by 40 per cent of the respondents. The move was opposed by 30 per cent of the respondents while another 30 per cent said they didn't know either way, the report found.
The survey report further found that most of the respondents were largely split along party lines and many of those who agreed with the executive order of Trump said that they do not know much about TikTok. For example, about 69 per cent of Republican supporters participating in the survey supported the move by the Trump administration but only 32 per cent of them said that they were familiar with the app. On the other hand, only 21 per cent of the Democrat supporters participating in the survey supported the Trump order and about 46 per cent of them said that they were familiar with TikTok.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that the outcome of the survey suggested that most people in the United States only had "a fleeting knowledge of the brand". The public rhetoric around TikTok and the increasing tensions with Beijing were potentially the causes of the negative attitudes against the app, Chatterjee said.
"Clearly there's been a politicization of TikTok," he said.
In the United States and elsewhere, TikTok has seemingly caught the attention and imagination of the teenage zeitgeist with catchy song-and-dance videos. But amid deteriorating relations with China, there has been bipartisan concern over the relation of TikTok’s parent company with the Chinese government.
The US president Donald Trump had issued an executive order asking ByteDance to sell of TikTok’s US operations to an American company because the Trump administration is concerned that the Chinese company and its app can be a national security threat. The American companies that are in the race to bid for the app include Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp. the Chinese app claimed that it has about 100 million monthly active users in the US.
An executive order issued by Trump on August 6 effectively banned all American companies form transacting with the Chinese company and its app within a period of 45 days. TikTok is now reportedly preparing for a possible shut down of its US operations if its sell off was not possible with mid-September even though t he company has also filed a lawsuit in the US challenging the executive order. The report also said that the company expects that any shutdown of its US operations would be temporary in nature.
The top contenders for the purchase of TikTok include the American tech giants Microsoft and Oracle as well as the retailer Walmart that confirmed that it had joined the race earlier this week.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, about 38 per cent of the respondents said that they were either very or somewhat familiar with the app while 25 per cent said they had watched a video on the platform. About 35 per cent of the respondents agreed with the statement that they had "heard of it, but that's about it."
(Source:www.livemint.com)
